“Since he left the gun behind, how would he know where they were going to take him before they took him there?” said Reel.
“That’s a good point,” conceded Bender, a hopeless expression on his features.
“We have to figure out the clue,” said Reel. “It’s the only one we have.”
Robie and Reel left Malloy and Bender at the station and made their way back to the hotel.
“We have to do something, Robie,” said Reel as they entered the lobby. She looked at her watch. “We’re going to be talking to the director in less than four hours. We have to have something
to tell her.”
Reel’s phone buzzed. She answered, listened for two minutes, and then said curtly, “Thanks.” She put her phone away and looked at Robie.
“Well?” he said.
“We might have another lead.”
“Who was that?”
“The sat guys. They managed to break into Lambert’s bird and see what it saw.”
“And?” said Robie impatiently as she fell silent.
“They went back about a month focusing on the convenience store late at night. They saw the van at Clyde’s. It all happened like Lamarre said. Van pulled in, trouble with the reader, and Lamarre came outside. And then the van drove off in the direction of Lambert’s bunker.”
“Did it actually go to the bunker?”
“They don’t know. The bird swung away before that could be revealed. But it was damn close. Within a couple of miles, they said.”
“A couple of miles out here is a lot of space to cover.”
“But what else is out there other than Lambert’s bunker, Robie? I doubt they were driving around in circles with prisoners in the back of the van. And Blue Man asked for a tour of the place. He was interested in it for some reason. And I’m thinking that interest stems from the prisoners in the van he was told about.”
“Okay, but are you suggesting that Lambert is bringing prisoners to his bunker? For what reason? And if so, why would he have offered us a tour of the place, much less Blue Man?”
“Well, he sure as hell didn’t show us the whole place,” said Reel. “There must be lots of nooks and crannies down there to stash people.”
“Granted, but for what purpose?” persisted Robie.
“Maybe we should take a ride and try to find out.”
Chapter
45
“OKAY, I THINK I can see twenty miles ahead, and it looks exactly like the twenty miles we just passed,” said Reel.
They had started at Clyde’s Stop-In and left in the direction the Agency people had told them the van had taken.
“We just passed the road going to Lambert’s bunker,” said Robie.
“So that could be where the van went.”
“If so, I don’t see how we’re going to get in there without Lambert knowing about it. You saw the security measures on the perimeter. And then how do we open the blast door? You got a nuke handy?”
Reel said, “And we don’t even know for sure if the van is connected to Blue Man’s disappearance.”
“Damn, Jess, let’s not keep turning the wheel back on that. Lamarre knew about the van. He told Holly who told JC Parry who told Blue Man. So Lamarre goes missing and so do Blue Man and Parry.”
“And it seems that Lamarre was taken, too, because he left his suitcase behind,” admitted Reel. “But what about Holly? How would anyone have known that Lamarre told Holly about the van while they were in rehab?”
“Well, like I just said, she told Parry. And Parry told Blue Man.”
“Right, but Holly didn’t expressly say that she told Parry or Blue Man about where she’d gotten the information from.”
“That’s true,” said Robie. “Though she might have.”
“Let’s assume that she didn’t. How would someone have found out Lamarre was the source?”
“He told his girlfriend, Beverly Drango,” pointed out Robie.
“And she said she told no one. And she hasn’t disappeared.”
“Well, she hadn’t when we saw her.”
“But isn’t it odd that they would snatch Lamarre from her house and not take her too?” said Reel. “I mean why wouldn’t they assume that he had told her about what he saw?”
Robie thought for a few moments. “They would have had to assume that he would tell her. But maybe she wasn’t there at the time.”
“They could have gone back when she was there. Or put eyes on the place so they’d know when she did come home. And yet there she still was when we went to her house.”
“Maybe we need to talk to her again.”
“Maybe we do.”
As they drove along Robie said slowly, “That was a good deduction you had about the gun based on what Bender said. You two seem to feed off each other well.”
“Yeah, there seems to be a lot of that going on around here,” Reel shot back.
Robie glanced away, whatever he was about to say forgotten in the wake of Reel’s not-so-subtle reply.
After a few moments of silence he said, “Patti told me that their father’s been gone I guess for a while. But she didn’t say what happened to him.”
Reel looked at him. “He died in a car accident twelve years ago. Drunk driver killed him. Derrick told me at the party at his mom’s house.”
“That must have been tough.”
“Life is tough, Robie. But you just have to keep slogging through.”
* * *
Later, they were approaching the house when Robie slowed and then stopped.
“What?” said Reel, scanning ahead.
“No Land Cruiser.”
“She’s probably at work. It’s not quite five o’clock.”
“The front door is open.”
Reel slipped her gun from its holster. “You take the front, I’ll hit the back.”
Robie parked the car and they climbed out. Reel immediately darted to her right, went around the detached garage, and flitted to the back of the property.
In his mind’s eye, Robie, who knew her so well, could visualize every tactical movement his partner would make on her way to the house.
Robie shifted from cover point to cover point until he reached the front door. Standing to the side, he called out, “Ms. Drango? Agents Robie and Reel. We need to ask you some more questions.”
There was no answer, not that Robie was expecting one.
He used his foot to nudge the door fully open. “Ms. Drango, are you in there? If so, please call out and reveal yourself.”
No calling out and no revealing.
Again, he wasn’t surprised. He was just wondering where they would find the body.
And maybe her killer.
He entered the house and immediately moved to his left and took up cover behind a ragged couch. He peered over the top of the furniture in time to see Reel’s face peeking out from the doorway into the kitchen.
“Clear here,” said Reel.
“Bedroom,” replied Robie.
The door was nudged open and it took all of ten seconds to search the room.
“Clothes gone,” said Reel, examining the empty closet as Robie pulled open the empty bureau drawers. “She’s run for it. Question is, because she was scared or because she was in on it?”